Tel Aviv University drops disciplinary claims against two Palestinian students who protested campus lecture

Tel Aviv University (TAU) on 4 June 2018 withdrew disciplinary claims that it had filed against two Palestinian Arab students from the Jafra Student Assembly Movement.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel represented the two students, Tariq Taha and Yousef Taha, after the university decided to refer them to the disciplinary committee when they and other Arab students protested against the participation of an Egyptian lecturer in a conference held on campus. The student protestors considered this lecture to be an act of normalization with Israel.

In her arguments before the disciplinary committee, Adalah Attorney Soheir Asaad contended that, “The allegations made against the students do not constitute an offense, but rather political activity undertaken by the students during a public conference, and falls within their freedoms to political expression and protest.”

Adalah Attorney Soheir Assad (third from left) with students at Tel Aviv University. (Photo by Adalah)

Adalah emphasized at the hearing before the disciplinary committee on 28 March 2018 that, “Public law applies to the university as a public institution, and therefore also the principles of constitutional law, including basic rights and freedom of expression in particular. Hence the university’s disciplinary rules must be interpreted in manner that upholds the students’ rights.”

On this basis, Attorney Asaad demanded that the claims made against the students should be withdrawn. After the hearing and submission of written arguments on 7 May 2018, the committee gave the university ten days in which to respond. The university did not respond, and on 4 June 2018, the university withdrew its claims against the students.

CLICK HERE to read Adalah’s written argument [Hebrew]